Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sorry for my long absence, I promise, in the last few weeks of my pregnancy to do better about posting, especially pictures as we make progress on the nursery, and other preparations.

I can't post like we haven't been busy or like the end of 2008 ended on a good note. The truth is we've been busy and the end of 2008 didn't end so happy.

Due to the baby's arrival in February, Thad had to rearrange his schedule so that he could be off when she actually gets here. That meant 3 months of grueling months at the hospital and between November, December and January 32 nights of call, that's a month of sleeping at the hospital and not coming home at night, not so fun for me and definitely not fun for him. We are at the tail end though and as of this posting we've got 7 nights of call left and then, while he might not be taking call at the hospital, I have joked with him that he'll take call at his own house. He's more used to staying up all night than me, so he'll take the night shift...yeah right!

On the Monday before Thanksgiving we lost my Nana, suddenly. She had been having some heart problems and spells of dizziness over the summer and was under the care of both her regular internist as well as a cardiologist. She got a stomach bug over a weekend and by Monday morning had passed. Thad consulted with her internist and both agree her heart condition cause her to go into A-Fib (?) due to the electrolytes in her body being out of wack due to the dehydration likely caused by the stomach issues over the weekend. Ultimately, it was her heart condition which put her at high risk for any type of "cardiac event". Needless to say, while Thanksgiving wasn't completely ruined, it wasn't as happy and fun as normal.

So we moved on to December, where we learned my mom's sister and my dear Aunt Martha wasn't doing well after a long battle with cancer. The day after Christmas her battle was over and she went home to be healed forever. Mom, dad, Nat and I all traveled to Williamston, NC to be with our family and to remember and celebrate her life. It was a beautiful service and it was so good to be with my mom's side of the family and to grieve and celebrate with them. We were all broken hearted, it's still hard for me to think about let alone talk about without getting emotional. She was a special, special lady and a wonderful, mother, sister, aunt and grandmother and will be greatly missed by all of us. I could write many more posts about her and her journey, and someday I will, but it's too much for today.

So that's what has been consuming our lives on top of the busy holiday season, normal work, and getting ready for a baby. It's why I never got Christmas cards out, I bought them, but just never had the chance to sit down and get them addressed. I figure next year, we can send one with the baby and make up for this year.